One
thing is immediately apparent when listening
to Janáček’s works: they are chock
full of passionate outpourings. His
musical portrayal of human drama is
frequently autobiographical in
nature.

Although recognition
of his compositions did not come until
he was sixty years old he continued
producing remarkable music during his
last fourteen years. This is the period
from which these works date; in fact
his second string quartet was his last
completed work. Much of this music was
inspired by his unrequited love for
the married woman Mrs Kamila Stosslova,
38 years his junior, whom he met in
1917 and to whom he penned over 600
letters. He wrote to her in his final
year that "For the last eleven
years you have, without knowing it,
been my idol. Whenever there is warmth
of feeling, sincerity, truth and ardent
love in my compositions, you are the
source of it".

Janáček’s
output of chamber music is small but
what its lacks in number is more
than made up for by the intensity of
feeling packed into each work. Anyone
who knows his piano cycle "On an
overgrown path" will have noticed
the way in which he can imbue the simplest
of tunes with considerable overtones
of tragedy, regret, nostalgia and compassion.
If ever there were works simply gushing
with these ideas it is the two string
quartets on this disc. The first of
them entitled "Kreutzer Sonata"
is a musical evocation of the woman
in Tolstoy’s story in which Janáček
champions the dominated woman over the
husband. The portrait of this woman
is extremely powerfully painted right
from the opening bars. Only in the last
movement, with music that is less full
of anguish, does Janáček show his
confidence in the dignity of
the human soul.

The title of second
quartet "Intimate Letters",
is clearly a reference to all those
letters to Kamila. Into this work he
pours his personal passions and depicts
the sterile family life that followed
the tragic loss of his two children
and his burning love for Kamila. Of
this quartet he wrote "This is
my first composition which sprang forth
immediately from an emotional experience
I had just lived through. Formerly I
used to compose my memories. This work,
my Intimate Letters, acquired
shape in fire, the former ones in hot
ashes only".

The works are quite
emotionally draining to listen to but
are totally engaging and hold the listener
completely until the last bars.

I
must say that I was mightily impressed
by the Martinů Quartet’s
performances. They know these works
inside out and the playing completely
mirrors all those musical utterances
of passion and regret. The sound is
exemplary, clean, crisp and possessing
a brilliance like a gleaming diamond.

I have never heard
these quartets better played and I imagine
they will become a benchmark recording;
in any case that’s how they will remain
for me.

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